I lifted this story word for word from my Cosmo-May Edition. I wanted to share it with you because it’s short & sweet. It made me realize that you can run, but you can’t escape from certain things (Enrique’s voice)

START

It’s easy to forget that guys also suffer the brutal heartbreak of losing the one- After all, they are usually a lot less vocal about it. Matt McGoldrick writes about the woman he can’t quite forget.

Falling in love at work was not on the cards, but even on the first day that Astrid walked into the office, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop it. Still, I tried. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by a smart, beautiful and potentially dangerous woman.

Oh, I was friendly enough but, unlike most of the other guys, I made sure there was No Hitting On. Later, Astrid told me this had driven her crazy. She joked about the futility of resistance. We became friends. We both read a lot. I liked Murakami and Ishiguro. She kept on going about Nabokov, but I was too busy trying not to think about how she could smell of naartjies and coconut at the same time, to notice much else.

One evening we were well oiled and arguing about Yeats. “I have spread my dreams under your feet: tread softly because you tread on my dreams”. I didn’t care for that line. She thought it romantic. I tried not to roll my eyes. Perhaps I arched an eyebrow. How this led to the bedroom, I couldn’t tell you. But seconds later, there we were. And hours later. And days. Halcyon days. We cooked, read and laughed together. She introduced me to her family. She met my folks; they liked her.

A few months down the line I told Astrid I loved her. She told me she was sleeping with our boss. He was 20 years older than us. At the time I was so upset that I hadn’t noticed that my heart had just been trampled on. Pride, I guess. I cashed in my chips and went travelling. That was a few years ago. I hear they are married with a couple of kids now.

I’m on the other side of the world. Which isn’t quite far enough —– I still smell coconuts sometimes —– but it’ll have to do.